Compressed audio data format and file system structures

ABSTRACT

A method for writing compressed audio data to a compact disc media is provided. The method includes selecting songs to be written in a session and reserving a first track. After the first is reserved, the method proceeds to writing a first temporary data structure and audio data to a second track following the first track. After the second track is closed, part of first temporary data structure (e.g., the recompiled INFO.CD3 part) is written to the reserved first track and the session is closed. Another method includes beginning a session writing the compressed audio data to the compact disc media. A track that includes a file system and an audio data section is then written. The writing of the track further includes writing an INFO.CD3 file, writing an ISO file system, and writing a FILEINFO.LC file following the ISO file system. Once the audio data section is written, the method proceeds to closing the track and closing the session.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 60/139,921, filed June 17, 1999, and entitled “PhysicalFormat, Volume and File Structure, and Recording and Reading CompressedAudio.” This provisional application is herein incorporated byreference. This application is also related to U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 09/414,378, filed on the same day as the instant applicationand entitled “Methods for Writing and Reading Compressed Audio Data.”This application is hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to audio data storage formats, and moreparticularly to the physical format of audio data written to compactdiscs (CDs) in a compressed format.

2. Description of the Related Art

As is well known, the primary user of CDs is the music recordingindustry. An advantage of CDs is that data is digitally stored and endusers are sure to get the same quality recording years after firstpurchasing the CD as when the CD was initially recorded. Althoughpre-recorded CDs are well received by consumers, with the advent ofrecordable CDs, such as, compact disc recordables (CD-Rs), users arequickly realizing that uncompressed data takes up a substantial amountof space.

By way of example, today many companies make audio titles available forsale over the Internet. Computer users therefore have a need to transferdownloaded music titles from their computer hard drives to, for example,a CD. However, most well known audio data recording applications recordmusic in a format that does not allow for a large amount of music datato be recorded. As a result, users that want to store music titles ontoa CD media have to use multiple discs to complete the task.

In view of the foregoing, there is a need for compressed audio dataformats and techniques for writing the audio data formats onto a CDmedia. The compressed audio data format should allow for the storage ofsubstantially more music data onto standard size CD media. Oncerecorded, the music data should be accessible by way of a standardcomputer system that communicates with a file system that providesaccess to the music data, or audio players having microcontrollerhardware or software to directly access the compressed data stored onthe CD media.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Broadly speaking, the present invention describes a format, method, andcomputer readable media for writing compressed audio data to a compactdisc media. The writing of the compressed audio data includes thewriting of a format that facilitates access to the audio data by apersonal computer accessing a file system or a microcontroller basedplayer. It should be appreciated that the present invention can beimplemented in numerous ways, including as a process, an apparatus, asystem, a device, a method, or a computer readable medium. Severalinventive embodiments of the present invention are described below.

In one embodiment, a method for writing compressed audio data to acompact disc media is disclosed. The method includes selecting songs tobe written in a session and reserving a first track. After the first isreserved, the method proceeds to writing a first temporary datastructure and audio data to a second track following the first track.After the second track is closed, the first temporary data structure iswritten to the reserved first track and the session is closed. Thewriting of the first temporary data structure further includes writingan INFO.CD3 file in a first sector of the second track and writing aFILENIFO.LC file in sectors following the first sector of the samesecond track. Zeros are then written to fill-in a remainder of a sectorcontaining at least part of the FILEINFO.LC file. In one specificexample, the writing of the temporary data structure includes writingthe INFO.CD3 file to a sector 15 of the first track, writing a filesystem (i.e., ISO 9660 File System) beginning at a sector 16 of thefirst track.

In another embodiment, a method for writing compressed audio data to acompact disc media is disclosed. The method includes beginning a sessionwriting the compressed audio data to the compact disc media. A trackincludes a file system followed by an audio data section. The writing ofthe file system includes writing an INFO.CD3 file and an ISO 9660 filesystem. Once the track is written, the method proceeds to closing thetrack and closing the session. In this preferred embodiment, theINFO.CD3 and FILEINFO.LC files define a microcontroller system structure(MSS) that is independently accessible to a microcontroller-basedplayer.

In yet another embodiment, a computer readable media having programinstructions for writing compressed audio data to a compact disc mediais disclosed. The operations of the computer readable media includeprogram instructions for selecting songs to be written in a session andprogram instructions for reserving a first track. Once the first trackis reserved, the computer readable media includes program instructionsfor writing a first temporary data structure and audio data to a secondtrack following the first track. Then, program instructions are providedfor closing the second track and writing the first temporary datastructure to the reserved first track. In this embodiment, when thefirst temporary data structure is written to the reserved first track,the writing of the first temporary data structure includes programinstructions for writing an INFO.CD3 file and an ISO 9660 file system tothe reserved first track. Program instructions then follow to close thesession.

In still another embodiment, a computer readable media having programinstructions for writing compressed audio data to a compact disc mediais disclosed. The operations of the computer readable media include: (a)program instructions for beginning a session writing the compressedaudio data to the compact disc media; (b) program instructions forwriting a track including a file system and an audio data section. Thewriting of the file system further includes: (i) program instructionsfor writing an INFO.CD3 file; and (ii) program instructions for writingan ISO 9660 file system. The computer readable media then includes: (c)program instructions for closing the track; and (d) program instructionsfor closing the session.

In a preferred embodiment, during the writing of a CD3 music CD, asession can be written at once or during separate multiple times. Whenthe CD3 music CD session is written at one time, the CD is preferablywritten in the form of only one track that contains an ISO file system302 and audio files data 124 b (e.g., see FIG. 8A). When the CD3 musicCD session is written during different record phases, it will contain atleast two or more tracks; one for the file system information and one ormore for the data.

As will be discussed below, the CD music CD session can contain morethan one data track that is written during different recording phases.In this case the session is preferably formatted with the first trackreserved for the ISO 9660 file system, which has a length of 300 Kbytesor more. Each data track will contain a temporary data structure (TDS)that includes microcontroller data structure information for theconstruction of the file system when the session is closed (e.g.,INFO.CD3+ FILEINFO.LC files).

When the session is written in the incremental way, at least 2 tracksare required in the session: one for the file system and one for thedata track. The file system track contains the ISO 9660 file systemstructure and at minimum the INFO.CD3 file. The INFO.CD3 file is writtenat a relative sector address 15 of the first track of the currentsession. Of course, any other sector can also be used if modificationsare made to the CD3 specification defined herein. The current track isreserved before the first data track is written. The track can have avariable length with a minimum of 300 Kbytes, in this embodiment. TheISO 9660 file system and INFO.CD3 are written just after last data trackis written and before the current session is closed as will be describedwith reference to FIG. 5. In a further embodiment, if the file systemstructure is bigger than the current file system track length, a newfile system track will be written at the end of the last data track. Inthis example, the file system will be written in the last track, whilethe INFO.CD3 structure and PVD will be written in the first file systemtrack.

With regard to reading the CD3 music data, a CD3 music CD discpreferably contains one type of data retrieval structure, which isadvantageously compatible to different types of playback systems. Forexample, one type of playback system is by way of the file systemstructure (FSS) that preferably conforms to the CD-ROM XA specification.Another is by way of the microcontroller system structure (MSS). The MSSis intended for microcontroller-based playback systems, which can be inthe form of a CD3 player. CD3 players can be part of an automobile audioCD player, a home CD player, a portable CD player and the like.

The file system structure (FSS) and the microcontroller system structure(MSS) of a session give independent access to all the data on the discfrom the first session up to and including the current session.

The file system structure (FSS) allows personal computers to retrieveand play audio files accessing the files in the DATA directory. Thedirect access to the relative sector address 15 of the current sessionallows microcontroller-based playback systems to retrieve all theinformation needed to play the audio files.

Other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent fromthe following detailed description, taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example the principles ofthe invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be readily understood by the followingdetailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, andlike reference numerals designate like structural elements.

FIG. 1A illustrates a top view of a compact disc, which may beconfigured to store audio data in a CD3 format.

FIG. 1B illustrates a flowchart diagram describing the method operationsperformed in preparing a compact disc to be a CD3 music compact disc(CD), in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1C illustrates a more detailed flowchart diagram of the writing ofthe data to the CD in the CD3 format, in accordance with one embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates the initial writing of a session wherein a firsttrack is reserved, and writing will commence beginning in a second trackand extend for any number of desired tracks, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a typical track, in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates a more detailed view of a data track of FIG. 2, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 provides a pictorial diagram of a plurality of data trackswritten in the CD3 format to a CD in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 6A shows the generated file system that was written to the reservedtrack before the session was closed as shown in FIG. 5, in accordancewith one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6B illustrates a block diagram of the INFO.CD3 file which has apointer to the FILEINFO.LC, in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates a method for preparing a compact disc to be a CD3music compact disc, in accordance with another embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 8A illustrates the structure of a file system and one track ofaudio data, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8B illustrates a situation in which multiple tracks are written andthe session is closed after each track, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of the file system of FIGS. 8A and8B, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of a CD3 player which willpreferably include a microcontroller.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

An invention is described for a format, method, and computer readablemedia for writing compressed audio data to a compact disc media. Thewriting of the compressed audio data includes the writing of a formatthat facilitates access to the audio data by a personal computeraccessing a file system or a microcontroller based player. It will beobvious, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present inventionmay be practiced without some or all of these specific details. In otherinstances, well known process operations have not been described indetail in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention.

The present invention is directed toward a method, computer readablemedia having program instructions, and hardware for recording music dataand associated information which can be accessed, identified and played.The music data is recorded and accessed by way of an inventive filesystem. For ease of discussion, this inventive format is referred toherein as a “CD3” format.

Accordingly, the following disclosure defines a file system for CD3recording, and includes a description of the physical and logical layoutof a CD3 format. Thus, CD3 music discs incorporate a system for storinghighly compressed audio files onto compact discs (CDs). In addition tocompressed audio files, a CD3 music CD can optionally contain digitalimages and associated text for lyrics. In a preferred embodiment, a CD3CD will conform with the well known multi-session compact discspecification and the ISO 9660 file structure specification.

For definitional purposes, the following terms shall have the followingmeanings:

(1) an application program is a program that processes the contents of afile, and may also process selected attribute data relating to the fileor to the volume(s) on which the file is recorded; (2) a byte is astring of eight binary bits operated upon as a unit; (3) a sector (alsoreferred to as a block) is the smallest addressable part of the recordedarea on storage media that can be accessed independently of otheraddressable parts of the recorded area, all media within the same volumeset shall have the same physical sector size; (4) an MSF Format is theSector address and the Subcode-Q channel time codes are encoded in theMSF format; the MSF format is a 6 digit BCD encoded number, the first(most significant) two digits contain the minutes fraction, the next twodigits contain the seconds fraction and the last (lease significant) twodigits contain the frames fraction of the subcode time code or sectoraddress; (5) a relative sector address of a sector is equal to the LogicSector Address of that sector minus the Logical Sector Address thatcorresponds with the table of contents (TOC) value of the first Track ofthe section in which the sector is located; (6) a session, as defined inthe Orange Book is an area on the disc consisting of a Lead-In area, aProgram area, and a Lead-Out area.

Any number of tracks may be written in a single session, up to a totalof 99 tracks per disc; (7) a single session disc contains one sessionand it is referred to as a Single Session disc; (8) a multisession discis a disc that contains more than one session; (9) a data session is asession of which the first track in the program area is a data track;(10) a CD-ROM XA session is a session of which the first track in theprogram area is a CD-ROM XA track; (11) a track is a physical area ofthe disc preceded by a pre-gap and followed by a post-gap (as defined inthe Red Book), no more than 99 tracks may be written per disc; (12) adata track is a track that contains sectorized data according to theYellow Book; and (13) a CD-ROM XA track is a data track that containssectors in the Mode 2 Form 1 and/or Form 2 according the CD-ROM XASpecification.

FIG. 1A illustrates a top view of a compact disc 100, which may beconfigured to store audio data in the aforementioned CD3 format. By wayof example, the CD3 format will enable writing of audio data to aplurality of tracks 121, which are illustrated by magnification 110. Ingeneral, the compact disc 100 can be any suitable disc that can bewritten with digital data, such as CD-R discs, CD-RW discs and the like.

FIG. 1B illustrates a flowchart diagram 102 describing the methodoperations performed in preparing a compact disc to be a CD3 musiccompact disc (CD). The method begins at an operation 103 where a CDrecorder (e.g., such as a CD-R recorder or a CD-RW recorder) is providedand a new CD that has not previously been recorded is provided. Once theCD recorder and the new CD are provided in operation 103, the methodwill proceed to an operation 104 where a CD mastering application iscalled. The CD mastering application is configured to enable the CDrecorder to record data to the new CD. Preferably, the CD masteringapplication will be enabled with computer instructions for recording thenew CD in the CD3 format, which is described in detail herein.

The method now proceeds to an operation 105 where a user selects thenumber of songs to write to the CD. By way of example, the user maydesire to write the contents of several conventional compact discs ontothe new CD. As mentioned above, the CD3 format will enable the recordingof compressed audio data onto the new CD in a manner that canpotentially allow the recording of up to about 9999 songs and associateddata. Typically, a standard compact disc having music recorded forconventional listening by way of a CD-ROM or standard audio compact discplayer holds between 1 and 99 songs (i.e., tracks) per disc. This numbercan vary, but it should be understood that this is substantially lessthan can be recorded using the CD3 format.

Accordingly, once the user has selected the number of songs to write tothe CD, the method will proceed to an operation 106 where the songs thatwere selected by the user are written to the CD in the CD3 format. Oncethose songs have been written in the CD3 format in operation 106, themethod will proceed to a decision operation 108 where it is determinedwhether the recorded songs are desired to be played using a CD-ROM. Ifthere is no desire to play the songs that have just been written, thesession will not be closed in operation 109 and the method will proceedto operation 112.

In operation 112, it is determined if more songs are to be added to thecurrent compact disc. If at the current time, no songs are to be added,the method will proceed to operation 113 where the adding of songs tothe compact disc will be suspended until additional recording isdesired. When additional recording is desired, the method will proceedto operation 104 where the CD mastering application will again becalled. The user will then select a number of songs to write to the CDin operation 105 and then write the data to the CD in the CD3 format inoperation 106. If the user desires to play back the recorded songs in aCD-ROM in operation 108, the method will proceed to an operation 110where the CD3 file system is generated and written to a reserved track.As defined herein, the reserved track is before the first track of datawritten in the CD3 format. The first track of data is actually thesecond track of a session.

A more detailed description of the reserved track and the writing in theCD3 format will be provided below with reference to FIGS. 2 through 6B.Once the CD3 file system is generated in operation 110, the method willproceed to an operation 111 where the session will be closed. Once thesession is closed, the method will proceed to an operation 114 where itis determined if there is more space on the CD. If there is more space,the method may proceed back up to operation 104 for the addition of moresongs to the CD. Alternatively, if there is no more space on the CD, themethod will proceed to operation 115 where the disc will be closed andthe method will end.

FIG. 1C illustrates a more detailed flowchart diagram of operation 106which describes the writing of the data to the CD in the CD3 format. Themethod first reserves a track in operation 116 as shown in FIG. 2. FIG.2 illustrates the initial writing of a session wherein a first track 122(i.e., track 1) is reserved and writing will commence beginning in track2 and extend for any number of desired tracks 124. As shown in FIG. 3, atrack has a minimum of 150 sectors spanning between sector 0 and sector149. The sectors 0-15 (130) are reserved sectors. Beginning at sector16, all sectors are reserved for the file system (132). An ISO 9660 filesystem of 150 sectors contains about 4000 file entries.

FIG. 4 illustrates a more detailed view of a data track 124 of FIG. 2,in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. A data track124 will include a temporary data structure (TDS) 124 a followed byaudio data 124 b. TDS 124 a will generally include a file calledINFO.CD3 (i.e., of 1 sector length) 124 c and a file called FILEINFO.LC124 d. If the FILEINFO.LC 124 d does not completely fill a particularsector, the remaining part of the sector will be padded with zeros asshown in 124 e. As will be described in greater detail, when the filesystem is generated, only the recompiled INFO.CD3 124 c and an ISO 9660file system will be written to the reserved track. The most recentlyrecompiled FILEINFO.LC 124 d will remain in the last TDS and can bereferenced by the INFO.CD3 as described with reference to FIG. 6B below.A more detailed description of the contents of the INFO.CD3 file andFILEINFO.LC is provided below.

Referring back to FIG. 1C, once the first track has been reserved asshown in FIG. 2, the method will proceed to an operation 117 where atrack of data is written beginning at track to 124 shown in FIG. 2. Thetrack of data that is written at-once will have a temporary datastructure (TDS). As mentioned above, the temporary data structure (TDS)is shown in FIG. 4 and will include the files INFO.CD3 and FILEINFO.LC.The method will now proceed to a decision operation 118 where it isdetermined whether the current track should be closed. If it isdetermined that the current track should not be closed, the method willproceed to operation 119 where the writing of data to the current trackwill continue.

Once it is determined that the current track should be closed, themethod will proceed to an operation 120 where it is determined whetherthere is a desire to write another track. If another track is desired tobe written, the method will again proceed to operation 117 where thetrack of data will be written following the previous track, and thecurrent track will have a temporary data structure (TDS), which will berecompiled using the information of the TDS of the previously writtentrack and of the current track. If it is determined that no more tracksare to be written, the method will proceed to operation 108 of FIG. 1B.

FIG. 5 provides a pictorial diagram of a plurality of audio trackswritten in the CD3 format to a CD in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present invention. As described above, when audio data is initiallywritten to a CD in an incremental manner (i.e., one track at a time),wherein the session is not closed after each track, an initial track one122 is reserved. The writing of audio data begins on the second trackwherein a first temporary data structure (TDS) 124 a is written followedby the audio data 124 b. Once the second track is closed 140, a nexttrack is written beginning with the temporary data structure 124 a whichis recompiled using the INFO.CD3 and FILEINFO.LC of the previouslywritten track.

After the TDS is complete for the second written audio track, the audiodata 124 b will be written and then the track will be closed 140. Thenext audio track begins with the TDS which is again recompiled using theTDS of the previous audio track, and then the audio data 124 b iswritten until the track is closed 140. The user will then desire towrite a fourth track beginning with the temporary data structure whichis again recompiled using the information from the INFO.CD3 andFILEINFO.LC of the previous and current TDS. Once the TDS for track 5has been written, the method will proceed to writing the audio data 124b of track 5.

Track 5 will then be closed 140 which will be followed by the generationof the file system in the reserved track 122. Once the file system hasbeen generated in the reserved track 122, the session will be closed142. If there is more space on the disc and the user desires to writeadditional tracks of data on the same disc, the user may begin a newsession wherein the first track will be reserved and the audio trackswill be written in the technique described above. Assuming that the userdoes not desire to write additional sessions at this time, and/or thedisc is substantially full, the method will proceed to close the disc144.

FIG. 6A shows the generated file system that was generated in thereserved track before the session was closed as shown in FIG. 5, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Sectors zerothrough 14 are preferably left reserved for future use, while sector 15136 is used to store the INFO.CD3 file. The ISO 9660 File System 132 iswritten starting at the relative sector 16 of the current session. Aspictorially illustrated, the file system structure (FSS) will havepointers that refer to the INFO.CD3 file 136, and the INFO.CD3 file 136will also have pointers referring to the FILEINFO.LC 134. It should beunderstood that the INFO.CD3 136 is the recompiled INFO.CD3 file for allof the tracks, and the FILEINFO.LC 134 is the recompiled FILEINFO.LCfile that will remain in the last TDS. In other words, the lastFILEINFO.LC file will not be written to the reserved track.

FIG. 6B illustrates a block diagram of the INFO.CD3 136 file which has apointer to the FILEINFO.LC 134. The FILEINFO.LC 134 will also havepointers to compressed and encrypted audio files 135 a, image files 135b, and lyrics files 135 c.

FIG. 7 illustrates a method for preparing a compact disc to be a CD3music compact disc, in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention. Flowchart 250 will concentrate on a method in which theentire file system 302 as shown in FIG. 8A will be generated first andthen the audio data will follow the file system. This technique differsfrom that described above wherein the session was not closed after eachtrack, but was closed after a number of tracks were written and then thefile system was generated before the session was closed.

The method begins at an operation 252 where a CD recorder and a new CDis provided. Once the CD recorder and the CD are provided, the methodwill proceed to an operation 254 where a CD mastering application iscalled. Once the CD mastering application has been called, the user mayselect a number of songs to write to the CD. The data is then written tothe CD in the CD3 format and the track is closed in operation 258. Oncethe track is closed in operation 258, the method will proceed to anoperation 260 where the session will be closed. Now, it is determined inoperation 262 whether there is more space on the CD.

If there is, the method will proceed to a decision operation 264 whereit is determined whether more songs are to be added to the CD. If moresongs are to be added, the method will proceed to operation 254.Alternatively, if no more songs are to be added, the method will proceedto operation 266 where the disc will be closed. Likewise, if it wasdetermined in operation 262 that there was no more space on the CD, themethod would also proceed to operation 266 where the disc is closed andthen the method will be done.

FIG. 8A illustrates the structure of a file system 302 and audio data124 b which are both part of one track, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention. As described above, the file system302 in this embodiment, is first written and then followed by the audiodata of the track. Once the audio data has been completely written, thetrack will be closed 140, the session will be closed 142, and the discwill be closed 144.

FIG. 8B illustrates a situation in which multiple tracks are written andthe session is closed 142 after each track, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention. As shown, the file system 302 willbe written followed by the audio data 124 b. Once the audio data hasbeen written, the track will be closed 140 and the session will beclosed 142. The next file system will then be written and followed bythe audio data 124 b. The track will then be closed 140 and the sessionwill be closed 142. The next file system 302 will then be written andthen audio data 124 b. At this point, the writing of data to the CD willreach a point where the CD will be full. Accordingly, the track will beclosed 140, the session will be closed 142, and the disc will also beclosed 144.

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of the file system 302 in accordancewith one embodiment of the present invention. As was the case with thefile system of the multiple track single session writing describedabove, the first part of the file system will be left reserved betweentracks zero through 14. In track 15 136, the INFO.CD3 136 will bewritten, followed by an ISO 9660 file system 132, and the FILEINFO.LC134. As pictorially illustrated, the FILEINFO.LC 134 can, in thisembodiment, fill one or more sectors.

FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of a CD3 player which willpreferably include a microcontroller 152. The microcontroller 152 may bein the form of hardware, software, or firmware. In general, the CD3player can be embodied in the electronics of an automobile audio system,a portable disc player, or a home stereo system, for example. Thus, oncethe user inserts a CD3 formatted CD into the audio system having the CD3player 350, the microcontroller 352 will be capable of referring to themicrocontroller system structure (MSS) 354, which includes the INFO.CD3136 and the FILEINFO.LC 134.

In a preferred embodiment, the mechanical and physical properties andthe data format of a CD3 music CD disc are in conformance with theMultisession Compact Disc Specification. A CD3 music CD can be a readonly disc or a CD-R/CD-RW disc. The data area for a CD3 volume on aCD-ROM shall be comprised of either Mode 1 or Mode 2 Form 1 sectors.

The Logical Sector Addresses of a CD3 music CD disc are calculated inthe same way as is defined in the Multisession CD specification. Thismeans that the following formula is used:

LSA=4500*PSA[mm]+75*PSA[ss]+PSA[ff]−150

In which:

LSA = Logical Sector Address PSA = Physical Sector Address in mm:ss:ff.The PSA of a Sector is the header address of the Sector PSA[mm] = mmfraction of the Physical Sector Address PSA[ss] = ss fraction of thePhysical Sector Address PSA[ff] = ff fraction of the Physical SectorAddress

This formula means that the CD3 music CD disc has one address space thatstarts at zero at the beginning of the disc.

In accordance with the present invention, data retrieval structures forCD3 music CD discs contain one type of Data Retrieval Structure that iscompatible to different types of playback systems. By way of example,one playback system may be through the File System Structure (FSS).Another playback technique may be by way of a microcontroller systemstructure (MSS), which can be independently read by a microcontroller asdescribed above. The microcontroller can, for example, be integratedinto a CD3 capable player. Further, the microcontroller can be in theform of a chip, a printed circuit board, firmware, or programinstructions executed by the aide of a CPU, or a state machine.

The file system structure (FSS) and the microcontroller readable MSS ofa given session therefore give independent access to all the data on thedisc from the first session up to and including the current session.

The file system structure (FSS) supports access to the audio compressedfiles and other data on a disc by computer-based playback such as CD-ROMXA. In this embodiment, a microcontroller-based playback system, such asa CD3 player, can use a microcontroller system structure (MSS).Preferably, the FSS will conform to the CD-ROM XA Specification. TheCD-ROM XA Specification defines the content and use of the ISO 9660Volume Descriptor in a manner that enables the production of discs thatplay in CD-ROM XA systems. The CD-ROM XA specification also extends theuse of the ISO9660 standard to multisession discs.

Furthermore, a CD3 CD system description will preferably conform toLevel 1 of the ISO 9660 levels of interchange. Each session preferablycontains a FSS describing the data that can be retrieved from the disc,from the first session up to and including the current session.Therefore, the FSS is recompiled for every session. The FSS of the lastsession provides access to all the data that can be retrieved from theentire disc, from the first session up to and including the lastsession. To access all the retrievable data on the entire disc, only thedirectories and files referred to by the FSS of the last session on thedisc need to be used.

Preferably, the directories of a CD3 music CD are:

(a) A Root Directory of a disc, which may contain further directoriesand or files in addition to those shown in Table A below. The requiredfiles in the Root directory are: AUTORUN.INF and the Player Application.The required directory in the root is the CD3 directory.

(b) A CD3 Directory in the Root directory contains all CD3 relateddirectories and files: the DATA directory, the IMAGES directory, theINFO.CD3 file and the FILEINFO.LC Files. The version number of all filesmust be “1,” and in this document the file version numbers are notshown.

TABLE A

The file “INFO.CD3 file” is located in the CD3 directory and has areserved name “INFO.CD3”. INFO.CD3 contains information specific to theCD3 music CD. For example, the INFO.CD3 file contains the CD3 music CDsystem identification, the Album identification and the pointers to theFILEINFO.LCn files. INFO.CD3 has a fixed size of one Sector and islocated at Sector 15 of the session as will be described with referenceto FIG. 6A.

The address of Sector 15 of a session is obtained by adding 00:00:15 tothe TOC value of the first track in the program area of the session. Ina preferred embodiment, the INFO.CD3 file describes the whole disc, fromthe first session up to including the current session. To enable this,the INFO.CD3 file is preferably recompiled for every session.Accordingly, INFO.CD3 can be accessed by a computer-based playbacksystem, such as a CD-ROM XA.

TABLE B INFO.CD3 File Structure Size Byte Position (Bytes) Field NameContent 1 . . . 8 8 Disc Signature “CD3” 9 . . . 12 4 Specific VersionNumber “0100” 13 . . . 44 32 Volume Name String 45 . . . 60 16 DiscSerial Number 16 61 . . . 67 7 Disc Creation Date Date and Time 68 . . .74 7 Disc Modification Date Date and Time 75 . . . 76 2 Number of Filesin the UINT16 CD 77 1 Reserved $00 78 1 Number of Languages NumericValue = P 79 . . . 88 10 FILEINFO_DESCR # 1 10 . . . 10 FILEINFO_DESCR #N N or N + 1 0 . . . 1 Padding BYTE ($00)

As shown in Table B, a specific version number is provided and containsthe version number of the CD3 Music CD specification used for the disc,encoded with digits form the ISO 646 character set. The first two digitscontain the Major Version Number, the last two digits contain the MinorVersion Number. The disc title is an ISO 646 encoded string containingthe Volume Name as reported in the ISO 9660 PVD. The session creationdate and time contains a time stamp, corresponding to the actual timewhen the first session on the disc was generated. A short time stampformat is provided in Table C below.

TABLE C Field Field RBP length name Contents 0 1 Year UINT8 1 1 MonthUINT8 2 1 Day UINT8 3 1 Hour UINT8 4 1 Minute UINT8 5 1 Second UINT8 6 1Time UINT8 Zone

The following represents an exemplary implementation of the time stampinformation described in Table C.

Year (RBP 1)

Number of years since 1900

Month (RBP 2)

Month of the year, from 1 to 12

Day (RBP 3)

Day of the month, from 1 to 31

Hour (RBP 4)

Hour of the day, from 0 to 23

Minute (RBP 5)

Minute of the hour, from 0 to 59

Second (RBP 6)

Second of the minute, from 0 to 59

Time Zone (RBP 7)

Offset to Greenwich Mean Time in number of 15-minute intervals from −48(West) to +52 (East).

Still referring to Table B, the disc modification date and time containsa time stamp, corresponding the actual time when the disc is updated,for example, when a new session on the disc is generated. For the firstsession this field contains the same information as the Disc CreationTime and date field. The number of CD3 files in the disc identifies thetotal number of files stored in the CD3 directory. It can include AudioCompressed files, images, lyrics and the optional files stored in theCD3 directory. It does not include other files stored in differentdirectories than CD3 directory.

The number of languages, is represented by one byte binary code numberthat specifies the number of FILEINFO_DESCRs in the INFO.CD3 file. Atleast one language has to be present on the CD3 disc.

The FILEINFO_DESCR in INFO.CD3, as shown in Table B, contains thelanguage code, the location and the size of a FILEINFO.lc file. By wayof example, the FILEINFO_DESCR is defined in the Table D below.

TABLE D RBP Field length Field name Contents N . . . N + 1 2 LanguageCode ISO 639 Language (lc) Code N + 2 . . . N + 5 4 Location of LogicalSector FILEINFO.lc Address N + 6 . . . N + 9 4 Size of UINT32FILEINFO.lc

The language code is a 2-byte string language code field containing thecountry code used for the FILEINFO.lc file. The country code is the ISO639 language code. In general, it is encoded in capitals from the ISO646 character set. Examples of valid Country Codes are shown in Table E:

TABLE E IT Italian JA Japanese EN English NL Dutch US USA

The location of the FILEINFO.LC is defined by a four byte binary numberthat contains the Logical Sector Address of the FILEINFO.LC file that isreferenced from the FILEINFO_DESCR. In a preferred embodiment, the sizeof the FILEINFO.LC file is obtained by a four byte binary number thatcontains the size in bytes of the FILEINFO.LC file that is referencedfrom the FILEINFO_DESCR. A size of zero bytes is not allowed. Ingeneral, the FILEINFO.LC file is a variable length data file thatcontains information for the audio files contained in the DATAdirectory. The files FILENFO.LC are located in the CD3 directory andhave a reserved name “FILEINFO.LC”. A disc must contain a minimum of oneFILEINFO.LC file. The file name extension “LC” is encoded as a stringwith a fixed length of 2 characters and contains the Language Code asdefined in ISO 639. FILEINFO.LC is configured to describe the wholedisc, from the first session up to including the current one. Therefore,the FILEINO.LC file is recompiled for every track within the session andfor every session.

TABLE F Byte Size Position (Bytes) Field Name Content 1 to 8 8 FileIdentifier “FILEINFO” 9 to 12 4 Specification Version “0100” Number 13to 14 1 Reserved 00 14 to 15 1 Character Set Code UINT8 16 to 17 2Number of Audio Files Numeric Value = N Info 18 to . . . AudioFileInfoRecord 1 AudioFileInfo Record N

Referring to Table F, the File Identifier field contains “FILEINFO”coded in ISO 646. The Specification Version Number field contains theversion number of the CD3 music CD specification used for the disc,encoded with digits form the ISO 646 character set. The first two digitscontain the Major Version Number, the last two digits contain the MinorVersion Number. The Character Set Code is a one byte binary coded numberthat defines the character set used in the FILEINFO.LC file. Examplecharacter set codes are shown in Table G.

TABLE G $00 Not Used $01 1SO 646 $02 ISO 8859-1 $03 JIS Roman [14] & JISKanji 1990 [168] $04 Shifted JIS Kanji, including JIS Roman [14] & JISKatakana [13] $05 . . . $FF Undefined

Still referring to Table F, the Number of Audio file Info Records is atwo byte binary number that identifies the total number of Audio FileInfo records contained in this file. The value of zero is not allowed.The Audio File Info Record is defined by a layout. The preferred layoutof the Audio Files Info Record is given in Table H below. An Audio InfoRecord starts with the length of the current record, the File Nameidentifier of the Audio File, and the Logical Sector Address, where theAudio file starts and the length in bytes of the compressed audio file.Byte Size Field Name Content

TABLE H Byte Size Position (Bytes) Field Name Content N 4 AUDIOFILEINFORec. UINT32 Length N + 4 12 Audio File Name “FILEXXXX.EXT” N+12 + 4 4Logical Block Address UINT32 N+12+8 4 Audio File Size UINT32 N+12+12 6Audio File Type String (CODEC) N+24+6 1 Reserved BYTE N+24+7 3Uncompressed Audio MFT Length N+30+4 M AudioFileInfo_Frame N+M+30+4−1

With reference to Table H, the Audio File info Record Length is definedby a 4-byte field that contains the length in bytes of the FILEINFORecord. The File Name character String Field contains the name that thefile of the FileInfo Record references. The File Start Address isdefined by a 4-byte field that contains the Relative Block Address ofthe file that is referenced from this FILEINFO Record. The File Size isdefined by a 4 byte binary number that contains the size in bytes of thefile that is referenced from the FILEINFO record. The File Type fieldindicates which type of audio compression has been used. The followingtype and refinements are defined in Table I.

TABLE I MPG1 MPEG 1 or 2 Layer I MPG2 MPEG 1 or 2 Layer II MPG3 MPEG 1or 2 Layer III MPG2.5 MPEG2.5 AAC Advanced audio Compression WMAMicrosoft Media Audio Format PCM Pulse Code Modulated Audio

With reference to Table I and the PCM Audio Length, the original FileSize Field contains the length in minutes, seconds, frames. The field isset to 0 if the length of the uncompressed audio file is unknown.

The AudioFileInfo_Frame format is shown in Table J. As used herein, allof the Info_Frames consist of an INFO_PACKED ID, an INFO_PACKET Length,and Data.

TABLE J Byte Size Position (Bytes) Field Name Content N 1 FRAME ID BYTEN+1 1 FRAME Length BYTE N+2 . . . M FRAME Data N+M+1 N+M+2 0 or 1Padding $00

The definition of the FRAME ID is given in Table K.

TABLE K FRAME ID Field Name Content $00 Unused — $01 Album Title String$02 UPC String $03 ISBN String $04 Copyright String $05 Track TitleString $06 Principal Artist String $07 Secondary Artist String $08Composer String $09 Original Composer String $0A Creation DateDate_String “yyyymmdd” $0B Publishing Date Date_String “yyyymmdd” $0CPublisher String $0D ISRC for Audio Track ISRC_String $0F ISRC forLyrics ISRC_String $11 DRM & Encryption Structure $14 Equalization — $15. . . 1F Unused — $21 Lyrics Logical Sector Address of the fileLYRInnnn.1c $22 . . . $2F Unused $30 Images Logical Sector Address ofFile IMAGnnnn.1c $31 . . . $3F Unused $40 VIDEO Logical block address ofVIDEnnnn.1c $41 Genre Code Group Maximum 4 Genre Codes, 2 byte binaryeach. $42 Tempo 1 Byte binary number. Tempo in beats per minute. 0 =indefined. $43 Key Key_Code, 1 byte binary number $44 . . . $FF Unused

With reference to Table J, the FRAME length is defined by a 1-bytebinary number that contains the length of the Info_Packet Data Field. Ifthe FRAME length is equal to 255, then the next FRAME is a continuationFRAME. A Continuation FRAME has the same FRAME ID as the precedingFRAME. A zero FRAME length is allowed. However, it is recommended thatthe use of zero length FRAMEs only occur in cases where a continuedFRAME is terminated with a total length being a multiple of 255.

TABLE L LOGICAL SECTOR ADDRESS & FILE SIZE Byte Size Position (Bytes)Field Name Content N+2 4 Logical Sector Address UINT32 N+6 4 File Sizein Bytes UINT32

A Digital Rights Management (DRM) & Audio Encryption packet indicatesthat the audio file is encrypted, and also indicates who performed theencryption. Since standardization of encryption schema is not definedyet, the packet can easily be defined. Genre Code consists of a maximum4 genre codes, each Genre Code being a 2 byte binary number. ExampleGenre Codes are defined below in Table M.

TABLE M ID3 Codes 0.Blues 1.Classic Rock 2.Country 3.Dance 4.Disco5.Funk 6.Grunge 7.Hip-Hop 8.Jazz 9.Metal 10.New Age 11.Oldies 12.Other13.Pop 14.R&B 15.Rap 16.Reggae 17.Rock 18.Techno 19.Industrial20.Alternative 21.Ska 22.Death Metal 23.Pranks 24.Soundtrack25.Euro-Techno 26.Ambient 27.Trip-Hop 28.Vocal 29.Jazz+Funk 30.Fusion31.Trance 32.Classical 33.Instrumental 34.Acid 35.House 36.Game 37.SoundClip 38.Gospel 39.Noise 40.AlternRock 41.Bass 42.Soul 43.Punk 44.Space45.Meditative 46.Instrumental Pop 47.Instrumental Rock 48.Ethnic49.Gothic 50.Darkwave 51.Techno-Industrial 52.Electronic 53.Pop-Folk54.Eurodance 55.Dream 56.Southern Rock 57.Comedy 58.Cult 59.Gangsta60.Top 40 61.Christian Rap 62.Pop/Funk 63.Jungle 64.Native American65.Cabaret 66.New Wave 67.Psychadelic 68.Rave 69.Showtunes 70.Trailer71.Lo-Fi 72.Tribal 73.Acid Punk 74.Acid Jazz 75.Polka 76.Retro77.Musical 78.Rock & Roll 79.Hard Rock 80.Folk 81.Folk-Rock 82.NationalFolk 83.Swing 84.Fast Fusion 85.Bebob 86.Latin 87.Revival 88.Celtic89.Bluegrass 90.Avantgarde 91.Gothic Rock 92.Progressive Rock93.Psychedelic Rock 94.Symphonic Rock 95.Slow Rock 96.Big Band 97.Chorus98.Easy Listening 99.Acoustic 100.Humour 101.Speech 102.Chanson103.Opera 104.Chamber Music 105.Sonata 106.Symphony 107.Booty Bass108.Primus 109.Porn Groove 110.Satire 111.Slow Jam 112.Club 113.Tango114.Samba 115.Folklore 116.Ballad 117.Power Ballad 118.Rhythmic Soul119.Freestyle 120.Duet 121.Punk Rock 122.Drum Solo 123.Acapella124.Euro-House 125.Dance Hall

The Key Code Definition is a one Byte binary number that defines themain key the Audio File as shown in Table N.

TABLE N Key Code Definition 0 Not Used 1 C major 2 G major (1 #) 3 Dmajor (2 #) 4 A major (3 #) 5 E major (4 #) 6 B major (5 #) 7 F# major(6 #) 8 F major (1 b) 9 Bb major (2 b) 10 Eb major (3 b) 11 Ab major (4b) 12 Db major (5 b) 13 Gb major (6 b) 14 . . . 32 Reserved 33 A minor34 E minor (1 # 35 B minor (2 #) 36 F# minor (3 #) 37 C# minor (4 #) 38G# minor (5 #) 39 D# minor (6 #) 40 D minor (1 b) 41 G minor (2 b) 42 Cminor (3 b) 43 F minor (4 b) 44 Bb minor (5 b) 45 Eb minor (6 b)  46 . .. 255 Reserved

The Padding Field is only used if the FRAME Length is an odd number.This optional one byte is set to $00.

A Lyric File is a variable length structure named LYRInnnn.lc, andcontains lyrics text for the correspondent audio file FILEnnnn.ext. TheLYRInnnn.lc are located in the CD/3LRICS directory (as shown in FIG. 6B)and have the reserved name LYRInnnn.lc. Each file with lyrics text forthe audio file nnnn in the language according to the language code lc,is represented by a file LYRInnnn.lc. The value of the nnnn is the filenumber equivalent to the audio file nnnn, encoded in ISO 646 as a 4digit decimal number with a leading zero. The language code “lc” isencoded as a string with a fixed length of two characters. The languagecode is defined in ISO 639 and is encoded in lower case characters fromthe ISO 646 character set. The layout of the LRYInnnn.lc files isprovided below in Table O.

TABLE O Byte Size Position (Bytes) Field Name Content  1..8 8 FileIdentifier “LYRICS”  9..12 4 Specification Version “0100” Number 13 to14 1 Reserved 14 to 15 1 Character Set Code BYTE 15..16 2 Number ofLyrics Frames UINT16 17.. Lyrics Frame 1 .. .. 4 Lyrics Frame N

The file identifier field contains “LYRICS”, followed by two spacecharacters, coded in ISO 646. The Specification Version number fieldcontains the version number of the CD3 specification used for the disc,encoded with digits from the ISO 646 characters set. The content of thisfield is identical to the content of the specification version numberfield in INFO.CD3.

The code character set is a one byte binary coded number that definesthe character set used in the FILEINFO.lc file. Exemplary character setcodes are provided in

TABLE P $00 Not Used $01 ISO 646 $02 ISO 8859-1 $03 JIS Roman [14] & JISKanji 1990 [168] $04 Shifted JIS Kanji, including JIS Roman [14] & JISKatakana [13] $05 . . . $FF Undefined

Still referring to Table O, the number of lyrics frames field containsthe total number of lyrics frames contained in the lyrinnnn.lc file. A 0value is not allowed. The layout of the lyric frame is given in Table Q.The lyric frames must be stored in ascending order of the MSF time code.Each frame must be contained in an even number of bytes.

TABLE Q Size Byte Position (Bytes) Field Name Content N 1 Lyrics FrameLength M + 3 Value N + 1..N + 3 3 Display Time MSF Time N + 4..N + M + 3M Lyrics String String N + M + 4 1 Padding BYTE

With reference to Table Q, the Lyrics Frame Length contains the lengthin bytes of all bytes following this field in the Lyrics Frame. TheDisplay Time contains the relative MSF (minutes:seconds:frames) timecode at which the lyrics string is intended to be displayed. The LyricsString field contains a character string with a maximum length of 252characters. Zero length Strings are allowed. A line break is identifiedby character $0D. The Padding Byte is only used if the lyrics Stringlength M is an odd number. This optional byte field is set to $00.

The Data Directory contains the Audio Data Files and subdirectories aswell. The audio files can be written in different compression andencryption formats. The name of the file follows the following rules.First, the first 4 characters are “FILE” followed by the characterrepresentation of progressive decimal number, “0001”, “0002” . . . etc.Second, no more than 9999 files can be written is a same directory.Third, the extension of the file is three characters and represents theformat (i.e., WAV, MP3, WMA, etc.), as shown in Table R.

TABLE R MPG MPEG layer formats AAC Advanced audio Compression MWAMSAudio Format PCM Pulse Code Modulated Audio

The IMAGES directory is a sub-directory of the CD3 directory and has thereserved name “IMAGES”. Two exemplary formats are identified in thisspecification: PNG and JPEG. The file name extension for JPEG is JPG andfor the PNG format the extension is PNG. The formats must conform to therelative specification. The name convention for the file image isIXXXXYYY.JPG or IXXXXYYY.PNG. The value of XXXX is the file audio numberthat the Image refers to, encoded in ISO 646 as a 4 digit decimal numberwith a leading zero. The value of YYY is a sequential number startingfrom 001, encoded in ISO 646 as a 3 digit digital number with a leadingzero. Each audio file can have a maximum of 999 image files.

Variable Length files with reserved name IMAGnnnn.lc are also containedin the IMAGES directory. The file IMAGnnnn.lc contains info structuresof the pictures files related to the audio file nnnn. The value of thennnn is the file number equivalent to the audio file nnnn, encoded inISO 646 as a 4 digit decimal number with a leading zero. The language“lc” is encoded as a string with a fixed length of two characters. Thelanguages code is defined in ISO 639 and is encoded in lower case fromthe ISO 646 character set. The layout of the IMAGnnnn.lc files isprovided below in Table S.

TABLE S Byte Size Position (Bytes) Field Name Content  1..8 8 FileIdentifier “IMAGE”  9..12 4 Specification Version “0100” Number 13 1Reserved BYTE 14 1 Character Set Code BYTE 15..16 4 Number of Image-InfoImage-Info Structure Structures 17..20 4 Image-Info 1 Image-InfoStructure .. .. n..n + 4 4 Image-Info n Image-Info Structure

The file identifier field contains “IMAGE”, followed by a 3 spacecharacter coded in ISO 646. The Specific version number contains theversion number of the CD3 specification used for the disc, encoded withthe digits from the ISO 646 character set. The content of the field isidentical to the content of the specification version number field inINFO.CD3.

The character set code is a one byte binary coded number that definesthe character set used in FILEINFO.lc. Exemplary character set codes areprovided in Table P. The Field Number of Image-Info Structures containsthe total number of picture-Info Structures contained in the fileIMAGnnnn.lc. Table T below describes the layout of IMAGE-Info Structure.

TABLE T Byte Size Position (Bytes) Field Name Content  1..4 4 Image FileType “JPG or PNG”  9..12 4 Image Location Logical Block Address 13 4Image Length UINT32

The Field Picture File Type contains the format identification of thefile encoded in ISO 646 character set. The Field Picture File Locationcontains the Logical Block Address where the image begins. The ImageLength contains the length in bytes of the Image.

The VIDEO directory is a sub-directory of the CD3 directory and has thereserved name “VIDEO”. One exemplary format, such as AVI, is identifiedin this application. The formats should conform to the relativespecification. The name convention for the video file is VXXXXYYY.AVI.The value of XXXX is the file audio number that the video refers to,encoded in ISO 646 as a 4 digit decimal number with a leading zero. Thevalue of YYY is a sequential number starting from 01, encoded in ISO 646as a 3 digit decimal number with a leading zero. Each audio file canhave a maximum of 999 video files.

Variable Length files with reserved name VIDEnnnn.lc are also containedin the VIDEO directory. The file VIDEnnnn.lc, contains info structuresof the video files related to the audio file nnnn. The value of the nnnnis the file number equivalent to the audio file nnnn, encoded in ISO 646as a 4 digit decimal number with a leading zero. The language “lc” isencoded as a string with a fixed length of two characters. The languagecode is defined in ISO 639 and is encoded in lower case from the ISO 646character set. The layout of the VIDEnnnn.lc files is provided below inTable U.

TABLE U Byte Size Position (Bytes) Field Name Content  1..8 8 FileIdentifier “VIDEO”  9..12 4 Specification Version “0100” Number 13 1Reserved BYTE 14 1 Character Set Code BYTE 15..16 4 Number ofPicture-Info Video-Info Structure Structures 17..20 4 Video-Info 1Video-Info Structure .. .. n..n + 4 4 Video-Info n Video-Info Structure

The file identifier field contains “VIDEO”, followed by a 3 spacecharacter coded in ISO 646. The Specific Version number contains theversion number of the CD3 specification used for the disc, encoded withthe digits from the ISO 646 character set. The content of the field isidentical to the content of the specification version number field inINFO.CD3. The character set code is a one byte binary coded number thatdefines the character set used in the FILEINFO.lc. Exemplary characterset codes are provided in Table P. The Field Number of Video-InfoStructures contains the total number of picture-Info Structurescontained in the file VIDEnnnn.lc. The layout of the VIDEO-InfoStructure is provided in Table V.

TABLE V Byte Size Position (Bytes) Field Name Content  1..4 4 Video FileType “AVI”  9..12 4 Video Location Logical Block Address 13 4 VideoLength UINT32

The Field Picture File Type contains the format identification of thefile encoded in the ISO 646 character set. The Field Picture FileLocation contains the Logical Block Address where the video begins. TheVideo Length Field contains the length in bytes of the Video file.

The file AUTORUN.INF is an ISO 646 encoded text located in the rootdirectory and has the reserved name “AUTORUN.INF”. AUTORUN.INF containslines of text which refer to the executable programs for variouscomputer platforms and other computer platform specific items. In apreferred embodiment, the file AUTORUN.INF is divided into Vendor_Groupsections. A Vendor_Group section starts with a one line Vendor_ID,followed by zero or more vendor specific lines. The Vendor_ID consistsof a “[” character followed by a Vendor_String, followed by a “]”character, followed by a line delimiter. The line delimiter used in thisfile is $0D,$A. Vendor_Strings are not case sensitive.

The following is an example of the content of the AUTORUN.INF file.

[autorun]

open=cd3.exe

icon=cd3.ico;

in this example, the open command is used and specified by the specificoperating system vendor to define method; to start the application“cd3.exe” and create an icon for the application using the file“cd3.ico”.

[. . . ]

The present invention may be implemented using any type of integratedcircuit logic, state machines, or software driven computer-implementedoperations. By way of example, a hardware description language (HDL)based design and synthesis program may be used to design thesilicon-level circuitry necessary to appropriately perform the data andcontrol operations in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention. By way of example, a VHDL® hardware description languageavailable from IEEE of New York, N.Y. may be used to design anappropriate silicon-level layout.

The invention may employ various computer-implemented operationsinvolving data stored in computer systems to drive computer peripheraldevices (i.e., in the form of software drivers). These operations arethose requiring physical manipulation of physical quantities. Usually,though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical ormagnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined,compared, and otherwise manipulated. Further, the manipulationsperformed are often referred to in terms, such as producing,identifying, determining, or comparing.

Any of the operations described herein that form part of the inventionare useful machine operations. The invention also relates to a device oran apparatus for performing these operations. The apparatus may bespecially constructed for the required purposes, or it may be a generalpurpose computer selectively activated or configured by a computerprogram stored in the computer. In particular, various general purposemachines may be used with computer programs written in accordance withthe teachings herein, or it may be more convenient to construct a morespecialized apparatus to perform the required operations.

Although the foregoing invention has been described in some detail forpurposes of clarity of understanding, it will be apparent that certainchanges and modifications may be practiced within the scope of theappended claims. Accordingly, the present embodiments are to beconsidered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the invention is notto be limited to the details given herein, but may be modified withinthe scope and equivalents of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for writing compressed audio data to acompact disc media, comprising: selecting songs to be written in asession; reserving a first track; writing a first temporary datastructure and audio data to a second track following the first track;closing the second track; writing at least part of the first temporarydata structure to the reserved first track; the writing including,writing an INFO file in a CD3 directory in a first sector of the secondtrack; and closing the session.
 2. A method for writing compressed audiodata to a compact disc media as recited in claim 1, wherein writing thefirst temporary data structure further comprises: writing a FILEINFO.LCfile in a CD3 directory in sectors following the first sector of thesecond track; and writing zeros to fill-in a remainder of a sectorcontaining at least part of the FILEINFO.LC file.
 3. A method forwriting compressed audio data to a compact disc media as recited inclaim 2, wherein the INFO.CD3 file contains a CD3 music CDidentification, an album identification and pointers to the FILEINFO.LCfiles.
 4. A method for writing compressed audio data to a compact discmedia as recited in claim 3, wherein the INFO.CD3 file is one sectorlong.
 5. A method for writing compressed audio data to a compact discmedia as recited in claim 2, wherein the writing of the FILEINFO.LC filefurther comprises: writing a variable length data structure to definethe FILEINFO.LC file, the variable length data structure containsinformation about the audio data that follows the FILEINFO.LC file.
 6. Amethod for writing compressed audio data to a compact disc media asrecited in claim 2, wherein the FILENINFO.LC has an LC extension thatdefines a language code.
 7. A method for writing compressed audio datato a compact disc media as recited in claim 2, wherein the firsttemporary data structure is not written to the reserved first track andbefore the session is closed, the method further comprises: writing athird track following the second track, the writing of the third trackincludes; writing a second temporary data structure, the secondtemporary data structure being recompiled to incorporate the firsttemporary data structure; writing audio data for the third track;closing the third track writing at least part of the second temporarydata structure that is recompiled to incorporate the first temporarydata structure to the reserved first track; and closing the session. 8.A method for writing compressed audio data to a compact disc media asrecited in claim 7, wherein the first and second temporary datastructures are not written to the reserved first track and before thesession is closed, the method further comprises: writing a fourth trackfollowing the third track, the writing of the fourth track includes;writing a third temporary data structure, the third temporary datastructure being recompiled to incorporate the first temporary datastructure and the second temporary data structure; writing audio datafor the fourth track; closing the fourth track writing at least part ofthe third temporary data structure that is recompiled to incorporate thefirst and second temporary data structures to the reserved first track;and closing the session.
 9. A method for writing compressed audio datato a compact disc media as recited in claim 2, wherein when the firsttemporary data structure is written to the reserved first track, themethod includes, writing INFO.CD3 file to a sector 15 of the firsttrack; writing a file system beginning at a sector 16 of the firsttrack.
 10. A method for writing compressed audio data to a compact discmedia as recited in claim 9, wherein the INFO.CD3 file incorporates apointer to the FILEINFO.LC file.
 11. A method for writing compressedaudio data to a compact disc media as recited in claim 9, wherein thefile system incorporates a pointer to the INFO.CD3 file and theFILEINFO.LC file.
 12. A method for writing compressed audio data to acompact disc media as recited in claim 2, wherein the INFO.CD3 and theFILINFO.LC files define a microcontroller system structure (MSS) that isindependently accessible to a microcontroller-based player.
 13. A methodfor writing compressed audio data to a compact disc media as recited inclaim 2, wherein the FILEINFO.LC file incorporates pointers to audiofiles, image files, and lyrics files.
 14. A computer readable mediahaving program instructions for writing compressed audio data to acompact disc media, the operations of the computer readable mediacomprise: program instructions for selecting songs to be written in asession; program instructions for reserving a first track; programinstructions for writing a first temporary data structure and audio datato a second track following the first track; program instructions forclosing the second track; program instructions for writing at least partof the first temporary data structure to the reserved first track, theprogram instructions including; program instructions for writing an INFOfile in a CD3 directory in a first sector of the second track; andprogram instructions for closing the session.
 15. A computer readablemedia having program instructions for writing compressed audio data to acompact disc media as recited in claim 14, wherein the programinstructions for writing the first temporary data structure furthercomprise: program instructions for writing a FILEINFO.LC file in a CD3directory in sectors following the first sector of the second track; andprogram instructions for writing zeros to fill-in a remainder of asector containing at least part of the FILEINFO.LC file.
 16. A computerreadable media having program instructions for writing compressed audiodata to a compact disc media as recited in claim 15, wherein theINFO.CD3 file contains a CD3 music CD identification, an albumidentification and pointers to the FILEINFO.LC files.
 17. A computerreadable media having program instructions for writing compressed audiodata to a compact disc media as recited in claim 16, wherein theINFO.CD3 file is one sector long.
 18. A computer readable media havingprogram instructions for writing compressed audio data to a compact discmedia as recited in claim 15, wherein the writing of the FILEINFO.LCfile further comprises: program instructions for writing a variablelength data structure to define the FILEINFO.LC file, the variablelength data structure contains information about the audio data thatfollows the FILEINFO.LC file.
 19. A computer readable media havingprogram instructions for writing compressed audio data to a compact discmedia as recited in claim 15, wherein the FILEINFO.LC has an LCextension that defines a language code.
 20. A computer readable mediahaving program instructions for writing compressed audio data to acompact disc media as recited in claim 15, wherein the first temporarydata structure is not written to the reserved first track and before thesession is closed, the program instructions further comprise: programinstructions for writing a third track following the second track, theprogram instructions for writing of the third track includes; programinstructions for writing a second temporary data structure, the secondtemporary data structure being recompiled to incorporate the firsttemporary data structure; program instructions for writing audio datafor the third track; program instructions for closing the third trackprogram instructions for writing at least part of the second temporarydata structure that is recompiled to incorporate the first temporarydata structure to the reserved first track; and program instructions forclosing the session.
 21. A computer readable media having programinstructions for writing compressed audio data to a compact disc mediaas recited in claim 20, wherein the first and second temporary datastructures are not written to the reserved first track and before thesession is closed, the method further comprises: program instructionsfor writing a fourth track following the third track, the writing of thefourth track includes; program instructions for writing a thirdtemporary data structure, the third temporary data structure beingrecompiled to incorporate the first temporary data structure and thesecond temporary data structure; program instructions for writing audiodata for the fourth track; program instructions for closing the fourthtrack program instructions for writing at least part of the thirdtemporary data structure that is recompiled to incorporate the first andsecond temporary data structures to the reserved first track; andprogram instructions for closing the session.